Downtown Taunton business owners discuss parking

Thursday

Jan 24, 2013 at 12:01 AMJan 24, 2013 at 10:37 AM

Downtown business owners met on Wednesday to voice their concerns, suggestions and ideas about parking in the center of the city.

The meeting was held at the Trescott Gallery and was organized by a coalition of downtown merchants and restaurant owners called called the Business Improvement District. It was also attended by Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr., Police Chief Ed Walsh and members of the City Council.

Marc Larocque

Downtown business owners met on Wednesday to voice their concerns, suggestions and ideas about parking in the center of the city.

The meeting was held at the Trescott Gallery and was organized by a coalition of downtown merchants and restaurant owners called called the Business Improvement District. It was also attended by Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr., Police Chief Ed Walsh and members of the City Council.

“We’re trying to create turnover in downtown parking,” said Walsh, a member of the Taunton Parking Commission, explaining the city’s position during the meeting. “Those spots on Main Street are high-value spots, probably the most high-value spots in the city for parking. That’s our high priority to enforce there and not allow people to stay longer than they are allowed.”

The Downtown Taunton Foundation, which is based at the Trescott Gallery, created a slide show featuring concerns they have heard from downtown business owners.

The first topic was the new electronic parking kiosks installed around the Taunton Green area in the fall.

Some business owners expressed desire for the city to activate the charge card function on the kiosks because customers don’t carry cash. A few business owners lamented cost of using the kiosks and others complained about their customers getting tickets.

Elisa Scully, president of the foundation’s board of directors, said one of the concerns heard most often about the kiosks is the need for an educational campaign on how to use them. Scully said many business owners feel the backlash when their customers have received tickets, and often customers complain about not knowing about the machines or how to use them.

Walsh said often there are many people who just don’t understand technology, and that the kiosks are easy to use.

Foundation Director Teri Bernert said that while there have been some downtown businesses calling for changes to the parking kiosks that were introduced in the fall, the consensus is that proactively collecting parking fees is a good thing.

“I think that from all the comments we heard it’s pretty consistent that the businesses downtown want ticketing and want turnover,” Bernert said. “It’s just kind of tweaking the system to make it more friendly toward business. But I will say that consistently I didn’t hear anyone who wanted free downtown parking.”

Responding to those who want the kiosks to be ready for credit and debit cards, Hoye and Walsh said that the machines are suited to accept the cards. But the city priced out services to process the transaction, and that they returned with a price of around $0.30 per swipe, which would make it unsustainable.

Hoye said the city continues to look at options for the kiosks. He said the city may be able to make a more informed decision about it when the number of parking kiosks used by the city potentially increases.

Walsh also said parking enforcement may be instituting a system of chalk markings to crack down on drivers who feed the meter for longer than they are allowed.

During the meeting, Walsh also spoke about up the city’s downtown parking garage, which he pointed out will someday need to be replaced. Walsh said major repairs to the municipal garage would be unaffordable.

Walsh put forth the idea of creating a new three-level garage in the space of a downtown parking lot on Trescott Street.

Another idea floated during the meeting was the possibility of selling a city parking garage to a private company. But, many people were skeptical.